Ariana Grande is reportedly being paid $8 million to headline Coachella this year, a monumental payday by any standard – but who decided that Grande deserved double what the iconic Beyoncé earned for her historical performance last year at the same venue?
Ariana Grande, for all intents and purposes, has had a good past year with her current album. However, Grande doesn’t have the range to get a salary greater than Queen Bey!
Even Grande’s performance didn’t measure up to the absolute perfection that was “Beychella.” Ariana Grande’s performance was a hodgepodge of guest performers and a tribute to the ’90s. Whereas Beyoncé’s performance was a single-woman production and homage to her Black culture and heritage.
Not only that, Beyoncé didn’t depend on star power to make her show memorable. In fact, she handpicked each and every dancer and singer in the production.
They were simply young, talented Black artists who were alumni of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and she wanted to highlight them for an authentic and true to her roots performance. She debuted a self-directed documentary of her show on Netflix on April 17.
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And it’s not that I’m biased, although, Beyoncé can do no wrong in my eyes.
According to Billboard Magazine, Beyoncé had the second best performance in Coachella history.
And by industry standards, Beyoncé is the bigger star. She has sold nearly 100 million solo albums along with 60 million albums when she was with Destiny’s Child. Not to mention, she has had six No. 1 albums under her belt. That’s no easy feat. And her stupefying ability to reinvent herself with every album release is pure genius.
On the other hand, Ariana Grande has only has had one No. 1 album out of her five solo albums and has sold roughly 23 million albums to date, including her current album, “Thank You.”
Knowing these stats leads to the question — how did Coachella come to the decision to pay Grande two times the amount of Beyoncé?
Considering the fact that Coachella is owned by Philip Anschutz, a right-winged billionaire, who is known to have financially supported hate organizations; it seems logical that the organization would pay Grande more than Beyoncé.
Why would Anschutz care about equal and equitable pay based on talent and status? He is perpetuating the wage gap that exists across the board for Black women. And it’s not to say that Ariana Grande doesn’t deserve a big payday. She does.
But if we are speaking on what’s fair, her payday certainly should not have have exceeded Queen Bey’s.
